Strongman Tells Serbians to Be Ready for War

With Serbia warning of war, Slovenia refusing to give up control of its borders, ethnic violence escalating in Croatia and the federal army making menacing moves, the relative peace that reigned in Yugoslavia on Saturday appeared to be only the calm before the storm.

Uncertainty has intensified in the past few days of ominous quiet over who commands the army, who controls the federal presidency and whether any legitimate organ of power still functions that could halt Yugoslavia’s slide toward a conflagration.

A fragile truce between Slovenia and local commanders of the 5th Army Division held for a third day, despite accusations by both sides that the other is still posing a threat.

But as European diplomats focus on firming up Slovenia’s cease-fire, other warring factions have been arming and posturing in advance of a broader conflict that many fear could plunge the Balkan peoples into an uncontrollable cycle of violence.

Serbia’s nationalist strongman, Communist President Slobodan Milosevic, went on television to warn his republic that it should be prepared to go to war.

“The citizens of Serbia should be ready for the defense of their country,” Milosevic said on Belgrade radio and television.

Touting Serbia’s reservists as the best-armed and best-trained in the federation, Milosevic said Serbia could not be protected from war and should not be caught “asleep in the conviction that it cannot take place.”

Yugoslavia would be better off without “those who have decided to leave it,” Milosevic said in an obvious reference to Slovenia and Croatia, which declared independence on June 25.

But he called for military protection of all territories where inhabitants want to stay united with Yugoslavia, signaling his intention to fight, if necessary, to prevent Croatia from dividing its 600,000 ethnic Serbs from the Serbian republic.

The warning from Milosevic followed unconfirmed reports of major casualties among Serbian nationalists in Croatia, where shootouts between Serbs and Croats have become a nightly occurrence.

Two Croatian reservists and numerous Serbian nationalist chetniks have been killed in two days of conflict in northeastern Croatia, according to the republic’s deputy interior minister, Milan Brezak.

“It was the most violent conflict with the terrorists so far this year,” Brezak told a news conference in Zagreb.

A Zagreb newspaper, Vecernji List, said 83 chetniks had been killed or wounded in battles around the village of Borovo Selo, but that toll could not be officially verified.

A massive army deployment from the Serbian and federal capital of Belgrade on Wednesday sent troops and tanks into Croatia’s ethnic flash points, as well as to neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina. The objective of their mission there has not yet been made clear. Unrest has intensified since the deployment, and the federal prime minister, Ante Markovic, has said the army acted on its own in moving in.

Markovic has been discredited for ordering federal troops to protect Yugoslavia’s borders after the secession declaration by Slovenia. Although he has sought to distance himself from the army action that triggered fighting that has killed dozens, he has lost credibility among Western governments that once looked to him as a unifying force in the troubled federation.

The collective federal presidency, which is headed by a Croat but dominated by Serbs, is also suspected of doing the army’s bidding. It issued an ultimatum to Slovenia on Thursday that demands broad concessions, while making no criticism of the renegade army movements or Serbian infiltration of Croatian territory.

Croatian Information Minister Hrvoje Hitrec told reporters in Zagreb on Saturday that he is deeply concerned by the army’s mobilization of reservists in rival Serbia, as well as the federal troops’ failure to return to barracks after threatening a swift and punishing military strike on Slovenia.

“We think this is a synchronized start of an attack against Croatia. If it happens, it will happen very soon, in the next few days,” Hitrec said. “I think the possibility of a serious war has been increasing and the possibility is now bigger for war than for finding a peaceful solution.”

Hitrec said Croatia is threatened with a potential blood bath.

Zagreb authorities have called for withdrawal of the federal troops from Croatia. Some worry that the military deployment, which encompasses all Serbian-dominated regions of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, might actually be a prelude to Serbia expanding its borders to take in the other republics’ Serbs.

The 180,000-strong Yugoslav People’s Army is multinational, but its officers corps is about 70% Serbian and closely allied with the Milosevic leadership.

Slovenian officials have complied with most provisions of the federal presidency order aimed at firming up the cease-fire, but they remain concerned over the army’s actions. Slovenes have been hesitant to dismantle tank traps and barricades erected around their republic, and they have refused to hand over control of the republic’s 27 international border crossings into Italy, Austria and Hungary.

Control of the borders, in the Slovenes’ view, has become the symbolic test of who rules Slovenia.

Slovenian officials have also hinted they will present a bill to Belgrade for $2.7 billion in “war damage” inflicted by the army’s attack on the republic last week.

Prospects for a compromise emerged early Saturday, when the presidency suggested the Slovenes should man the crossings but hand over customs and tariffs collected there to the federal government.

Talks between Slovenian officials and two presidential envoys ended without agreement, however, with Slovenia saying it would not meet a Sunday deadline for allowing federal takeover of the frontiers.

“These points cannot be accepted,” Slovenian Information Minister Jelko Kacin said after the talks.

Republic leaders were to meet three European Community envoys for further talks on the border issue today. Two other EC attempts at mediation over the past week resulted in truces that quickly collapsed.

The two presidential envoys, Vasil Tupurkovski of Macedonia and Bogic Bogicevic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, returned to Belgrade after what a senior Slovenian official described as a day of “agonizing” talks.

Ljubljana’s refusal to concede border controls raised concern that the army might launch another assault on the breakaway republic.

Federal tanks moved against Slovenia on June 27, two days after it declared independence from the Yugoslav federation. The army seized Ljubljana’s Brnik Airport and fired on Slovenian reservists who had taken control of border crossings. An aerial blitz followed the next day, and clashes between soldiers and the republic’s territorial defense forces escalated until the first serious attempts at a cease-fire on Wednesday.